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November 18, 2005

Do Not Buy Defective CDs

A few months ago I bought some Kate Bush albums, very very cheap. And I got them home, and discovered they had "copy control" on them. So I decided to take them back, but thought I'd just check, first, to see if they ripped on the Mac. And of course, they did, no problem, so that was that.

Today, I bought the Idlewild CD, Warnings and Promises, that I've been wanting ever since we saw them at the Cambridge Folk Festival last summer. And once again, I failed to spot that it was copy controlled. And once again, it ripped without difficulty, so I was mollified.

But. Don't do it. Do not try to sell me defective CDs. I'm buying an album a week, more or less, and perhaps 30 tracks a week online. And I don't buy any online tracks with DRM, and I only ever buy CDs that try to have DRM by accident. If you do this, I will live without owning your music. And from now on, I'll be taking a lot more care to check in record stores.

Update 15 January 2006: If you agree with me, there's a petition you can sign.

Posted by Alison Scott at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)